Viral Radar: Japanese Pop Star Revealed As CGI

When a new pop star joined Japanese Idol group AKB48 and subsequently starred in a Glico candy commercial, the fans fell in love with her instantaneously. She was beautiful—her eyes popped, her nose, lips and hair were perfect. She was too good to be true. Literally.

When a new pop star joined Japanese Idol group AKB48 and subsequently starred in a Glico candy commercial, the fans fell in love with her instantaneously.  She was beautiful—her eyes popped, her nose, lips and hair were perfect.  She was too good to be true.  Literally.  Days after Eguchi Aimi was introduced to the world she was revealed as a fake—a CG composite, made up of the best facial features of six other members of AKB48.  Eguchi Aimi’s candy commercial, a video of how she was created and the news about this pop hoax are all spreading like wildfire.

The Glico candy commercial starring Eguchi Aimi has gotten over 725,000 views so far and a making of video has raked in close to 1 million views.  Check out the commercial spot below.  While Eguchi’s mouth does look a little bit strange when she eats the candy at the end, the CGI is basically undetectable if you don’t know that one of the girls in the video is fake.

According to an article in the Washington Post, fans were suspicious because of the fact that Eguchi got to star in a Glico commercial so soon after her induction into AKB48.  “Every year, fans vote which of the group’s members are the most popular, and usually only the most popular girls star in the commercials.”  These fans’ suspicions were confirmed when it was announced that the newest addition to AKB48 was, in fact, fake.

The following video, with just over 938,000 views so far, shows how Eguchi Aimi was created—with composites from six of her fellow AKB48 members.

A fun website from Glico lets fans create their own AKB48 idol as well, made up of features from the real members.  Head over to the website, and click through images to choose the hair, eyes, nose and mouth of your idol.  It’s pretty fun—although most of the combinations look pretty strange.

What do you think of the Glico-AKB48 shenanigans?  Do you think it’s right to introduce a fake person to fans, pretending she’s real?  Did Eguchi Aimi have you fooled?

Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times.  Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.